Primal Scream at the Coogee Bay Hotel

In late January I was given a fantastic opportunity by my friend Robert Gjessing from Harlequin Photography. Not only was it the opportunity to shoot my first live band gig.. it was at Coogee Bay Hotel and of an International Act. Now Primal Scream does not need any introduction to many people.. well perhaps not the current generation of Lady GaGa loving pop lovers but to the older crowd these guys still rate high on the radar.

Live gig photography has always interested me and I hope I get to shoot many more in the future. It is a real challenge and a show of skills under pressure. You have to deal with the constant changing of light conditions and movement of the band. The colour casts and varieties of colours being flashed on stage at any one time and the hustle and bustle of the photographer pit, with every photography looking for those key photos to present to who they represent. Unknown to most people you get a maximum of 3 song in the pit… with many bands only allowing 1 song. Upon completion you get promptly escorted from the venue and have your passes confiscated.. its infact almost like you got caught sneaking in and you are now being booted out the back door.

Being my first gig shoot I gave the short zoom a chance.. using the 17-55mm f2.8 on my Nikon D90 and shooting at ISO1600. There is noise.. there is grain but it adds a bit of character to the shots. I also decided to shoot the first song with my Nikon F3 and Neopan 1600 B&W film.. and this is partly why this blog post is so delayed. After 3 months it is finally developed and I am pretty stoked with the results. For having to manual focus and shooting constant moving subjects I ended up with a fair few more shots than I thought I might have. I hope this is the first of many gig shoots and look forward to sharing more with you in the future. (Shots 1 + 2 are Digital and the rest are film).

I would like to say a big thank you again to Robert Gjessing from Harlequin Photography and I look forward to shooting more gigs with you in the future.